09 Jul
From its genesis to its positioning in the Salesforce ecosystem, you will know everything about Interaction Studio.
Hyper-personalization, predictive technologies and recommendations, particularly through AI, are -we’re not teaching you anything- increasingly central issues in the field of marketing. They also represent major challenges (particularly organizational and technical) for some companies. Reason being: 92% of marketing professionals now say that their customers and prospects expect customized experiences (according to a 2020 study by Evergage and Researchscape).
The latest Salesforce Connections conference highlighted the need to move towards greater personalization, particularly in light of the increased digitization that is taking place in the current environment. One tool in particular stands out in this context, namely Interaction Studio: a personalization and recommendation tool that complements Marketing Cloud and to which we will give a more detail look in this article. Enjoy your reading!
From Thunderhead to Evergage, brief history of Interaction Studio
Legacy (Thunderhead ONE)
The story of Interaction Studio begins with the integration of the Thunderhead tool with Salesforce products.
Thunderhead is a customer engagement platform that optimizes the personalization of customer journeys and conversations at scale. The tool listens to all channels and contact points, online and offline, to connect and identify customers and then orchestrate their journey. What to remember about this part is that before February 2020, Interaction Studio (Legacy) is above all a partnership between Thunderhead ONE and Salesforce around the orchestration of journeys.
Thunderhead is therefore a third-party tool that complements Salesforce but does not constitute a takeover by the publisher. Which brings us to the next part of the Interaction Studio’s history.
The acquisition of Evergage
In February 2020, Salesforce acquired Evergage. Previously a stand-alone platform, Evergage is now Salesforce’s Interaction Studio product.
Considered as the leader in one-to-one personalization (according to Gartner), the solution offers more features and flexibility than Thunderhead. But the acquisition of Evergage is also explained by the need for Salesforce to offer a product that is expert in personalization and recommendation, in a context where the complete Salesforce CDP offering is still maturing.
Evergage offsets Salesforce’s global offering by providing broader data science and service management, as well as machine learning-based analytics to complement Salesforce Einstein.
For the remainder of this article, we will offer a comparison of the features provided by each of the Thunderhead and Evergage tools.
Now that we know the history of Interaction Studio, let’s take a closer look at this tool. We will see what can be achieved in terms of increasingly personalized marketing actions.
Interaction Studio, how it works
Sending the right message, at the right time and to the right person remains the goal of any marketer. Recent surveys continue to prove this mantra right: 52% of B2C customers will not hesitate to switch brands if their experience is not personalised. Loyalty therefore requires a tailor-made and cross-channel customer experience.
Know (again) each individual interacting with your brand
An important feature of Interaction Studio is the Unified Customer Profile (UCP). The UCP is a profile dedicated to each individual, identified or anonymous and updated in real time. For each individual, Interaction Studio collects affinity, engagement, identity, attributes, segments and predictive data. Therefore, it understands and recognizes individuals (their preferences, interests and intentions), even among a group of anonymous people.
With each identification, Interaction Studio reconciles prospect and customer profiles in real time. The 360° view of your customers is thus constantly enhanced.
Offer one-to-one personalization without creating micro-segments and infinite management rules
Whether on your website, mobile application, social networks… each contact point is captured. These actions are processed in real time, allowing you to know what is happening online and offline at the moment.
AI allows to automatically create segments and to propose the next best action or best offer, in a few milliseconds. So, if the activity is tracked in real time, so is the personalization.
As you understand, orchestrating personalized campaigns becomes a breeze!
Deliver a seamless cross-channel experience
As each individual is different, the channels of interest are not the same. It is necessary to be present on all channels to capture your customers and offer a personalized experience on each channel of interest. Very often, channels are managed each on their own, with several tools offering a disjointed cross-channel experience from the customer’s point of view. Interaction Studio captures all interactions and provides real-time personalized action across all your channels.
Measure the impact of your personalised campaigns
A/B/n testing allows you to compare the effectiveness of campaigns and choose the most relevant option. Visualizing and analyzing the interaction of contact points allows you to understand customer engagement and what attracts them most. At any time, it is possible to put on stand-by the least relevant activities and prioritize the most effective campaigns.
Positioning in the Salesforce Ecosystem
Interaction Studio is therefore a high potential tool that complements Marketing Cloud. As seen previously, the acquisition of Evergage appears to be the logical next step in Salesforce’s strategy to achieve its target vision: to develop and implement a complete marketing stack.
Today, Salesforce’s marketing ecosystem is made up of four main pillars allowing it to meet its objectives:
- Interaction Studio, which you are now familiar with: a personalization and recommendation engine that enables the decision making and activation of personalized, omnichannel and real-time marketing actions.
- The Salesforce CDP (formerly Customer 360 Audiences): it ensures the integration, processing and consolidation of data under a single profile.
- The creation and sending of marketing campaigns (email, SMS, push notifications, social networks, etc.)
- Datorama: a data visualization tool that can now be integrated with Marketing Cloud.
Do you know another way to engage your customers? Find out about our voucher app for Salesforce Marketing Cloud!
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